I have been seting up my round since about August time. About 6 weeks ago I got a move on and have had 5000 leaflets dropped in my area in those 6 weeks. I go out at night to see prospective customers and use what I have read on here to keep me right. About 80% agree to my prices so I feel I am in the right ballpark for this area although I am the most expensive about. I have managed to pick up 100 new customers in the last 6 weeks and am now at the point of earning a decent wage from it.
Tonight I went along to see this lady who wanted a cleaner. It was a standard 3 bed semi, double bay at the front and I quoted £10.00 ( I know I know, but if I go higher I simply won't get the business in this particular area). The woman looked gobsmacked and said she paid nothing like that to her last cleaner. I said 'but did he clean the frames and sills' 'yes' she said, 'for ME he did' and he did the insides 3 times a year too. She got him 5 new customers around her and used to collect the money from them for him so I guess he was trying to keep her sweet.
Anway, I said 'well where is he then'. She said he was subcontracting from someone else but hadn't come back. The guy who owns the round came out once, promised to sort it out but never came back either. She was sick of ringing him. I said 'well, whatever you were paying them obviously wasn't enough to make a living if neither of them were interested in doing her windows'. She replied that I was just too expensive and I was exploiting people. I replied that I had 150 happy customers who would disagree with her, that I was better placed to judge as I was pounding the streets for months speaking to customers and that she was being rediculous with her exploitation comment. I then walked away leaving her standing there.
I think she has a set amount in her head that us lowly WC's should earn and I obviously exceeded that. I also think she got frustrated when I didn't crumble under her arguments and put quite reasoned arguments back to her. She ended up with nowhere to go other than be silly. She also mentioned she was self employed, I wonder if she calculated I was earning more than her and as she is obviously so much more important than me I must therefore be into the exploitation game.